A new recommendation -- Jim’s Pseudo-Intellectual Book Club, Vol. LVI

This pseudo-intellectual isn’t much for recommending fiction. But I’ve grown fond of the mystery series produced by Michael Connelly and John Sanford.Now I can add James Benn to that list. His “Billy Boyle” mysteries, set in the midst of the Allied High Command in Europe during World War II, are just different enough to past muster with this pseudo-discriminating reader.Who is Billy Boyle? He’s a young, inexperienced Boston police detective who was promoted into investigations through the undue influence of his police officer father. He’s also the nephew of U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower, prompting Boyle family members to use their influence with Ike to get Boyle a staff job under Ike in Washington, D.C., after he was drafted into the army. The plan was to allow Boyle to sit out World War II in relative safety.Circumstances are complicated, however, when Eisenhower is named to a top command in Europe. Ike then taps Billy to go with him and be his head of special investigations into various and sundry criminal and espionage problems.Not only is Boyle in physical danger because of the war, he’s a novice investigator who has to learn on the job.Benn has produced seven Billy Boyle novels, and I’ve read two.“Billy Boyle,” Benn’s first in the series, involves a search for a spy who is trying to ferret out Allied plans to invade Norway. Murder ensues. The suspects are many, and the motives are mixed.In “A Mortal Terror,” Boyle is assigned to find a serial killer who is targeting officers as the U.S. Army marches through Italy.It’s an unusual and intriguing mixture of two traditional genres — the crime novel and the war novel.Here are previous recommendations from Jim’s Pseudo-Intellectual Book Club.[-] “Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission” by Hampton Sides.[-] “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” by Edmund Morris.[-] “A Night to Remember” by Walter Lord.[-] “April 1865: The Month That Saved America” by Jay Winik.[-] “Seabiscuit: An American Legend” by Laura Hillenbrand.[-] “Lindbergh” by A. Scott Berg.[-] “The Kennedy Men: 1901-1963” by Laurence Leamer.[-] “The Brother: The Untold Story of the Rosenberg Case” by Sam Roberts.[-] “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy” by Jane Leavy.[-] “Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions” by Ben Mezrich.[-] “Harry & Ike: The Partnership That Remade the Post-War World” by Steve Neal.[-] “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” by Michael Lewis.[-] “Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley & Livingstone” by Martin Dugard.[-] “In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors” by Doug Stanton.[-] “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34.” by Bryan Burrough.[-] “Flags of our Fathers,” by James Bradley.[-] “Cary Grant: A Biography” by Marc Elliot.[-] “Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager” by Buzz Bissinger.[-] “Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York” by Kenneth Ackerman.[-] “They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967” by David Maraniss.[-] “Flashman” (a novel) by George MacDonald Fraser.[-] “Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling and A World on the Brink” by David Margolick.[-] “Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics and the Battle for the Soul of a City” by Jonathan Mahler.[-] “Five Families: the Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires” by Selwyn Raab.[-] “The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and the Golden Age of Basketball.” by John Taylor.[-] “American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies” by Michael Kauffman.[[-] “The Looming Tower: al-Qaida and the Road to 9/11” by Lawrence Wright.[- ) “A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood’s Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports” by Brad Snyder.[-] “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game” by Michael Lewis.[-] “The Education of a Coach” by David Halberstam.[-] “Arc of Justice: A Sage of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age” by Kevin Boyle[-] “The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived The Great American Dust Bowl” by Timothy Egan.[-] “The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case” by James Neff.[-] “The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House” by John Harris.[–] “FDR” by Jean Edward Smith(-) “The Unlikely Spy” (a novel) by Daniel Silva.(-) “Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal” by Ben Macintyre(-) “The Interpretation of Murder” (a novel) by Jed Rubenfeld(-) “The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country” by Laton McCartney.(-) “The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changes Their Lives Forever”by Joe Layden.(-) “The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958 and the Birth of the Modern NFL” by Mark Bowden.(-) “Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family” by Joaquin “Jack” Garcia.(-) “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer(-) “Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World’s Most Notorious Nazi” by Neal Bascomb(—) “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Goodwin.(—) “His Excellency: George Washington” by Joseph Ellis.(—) “Clemente” by David Maraniss(—) “An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963” by Robert Dallek(-) “Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination” by Neal Gabler.(-) “Tears in the Darkness” by Michael and Elizabeth Norman(—) “The Scarecrow” by Michael Connelly (mystery novel).(-) “Four Days in November” by Vincent Bugliosi(—) “Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald.” by Edward Jay Epstein(—) “America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation” by Michael MacCambridge